Chapter Forty-Three: The Abyss

Despite their desire to reach Atlas as quickly as possible, Phoenix and the others had to wait for the train to Argus. All air traffic had been shut down in an attempt to keep remaining members of the White Fang from escaping, so traveling with Jenkins wasn't an option. The hunt for the White Fang also meant that the minimal law enforcement in the lower levels of the city had become nonexistent. Phoenix had decided to do something about this.

He snuck out of the house, masked and fully armed, and made his way to the lower levels, making sure that he wasn't seen by anyone. He had been sneaking out at night in order to fight crime as the Flaming Shadow since shortly after the Battle of Haven. After his excitement about helping to kill his mother had died down, the thoughts regarding his role in the deaths of numerous huntsmen that he had pushed to the back of his mind during the battle started to return. Ruby had reassured him that it wasn't his fault and made him promise that he wouldn't blame himself, but that promise was proving difficult to keep. He had decided to return to crime fighting to try and remind himself that he was capable of doing good.

It never took Phoenix very long to find something to do in the lower levels. Within the first half hour he'd spent there that night, he'd already stopped four assaults, seven thefts, and a burglary. He had just finished stopping a thief who had taken a woman's purse as she walked down a dark alley. One thing that he'd taken note of was the spider tattoo that was on the thief's right arm. He had dealt with people who had matching tattoos several times over the past few nights, and he thought it was likely that they were all part of the same gang. "In the future, you might want to avoid walking down dark alleys in the lower levels," Phoenix advised as he returned the purse to its owner.

"Please let me give you what you deserve for helping me," the woman said, reaching into the purse.

"That really isn't necessa-" Phoenix was cut off as he dodged the knife that she had drawn from her purse and thrown at him. Her reason for the attack was revealed to him before he had the chance to ask as the woman removed her glove to reveal a spider tattoo. Several others with the tattoo on various locations on their body blocked off both ends of the alley.

"You've been causing the Spiders a lot of trouble," the woman he'd "saved" said as she drew a dagger from her purse before discarding it. "And now you're caught in our web." Taking that as their cue to attack, the others drew similar daggers and attacked him.

It took Phoenix less than a minute to defeat all of the Spiders. As the last one was knocked out, the sound of someone clapping slowly could be heard from above. Phoenix quickly turned and looked up to face the source of the noise. Said source was a cloaked figure standing on a rooftop. The figure's cloak, body armor, boots, and gauntlets were all black. Swords could be seen at its sides. Its face was covered by a mask, and the shadows from the cloak's hood would have concealed its face even without had a pair of swords at its sides. "I'm impressed," it said as it jumped off of the roof and landed in front of Phoenix, its voice distorted its mask. "You passed my test with flying colors."

"Wasn't too hard," Phoenix said as he readied himself for another fight. "I didn't even have to study."

The figure started to laugh, clearly finding Phoenix's response amusing. "Crushing those spiders wasn't the test. I knew that you would be able to defeat them when I told them how to get your attention. No, what impressed me was how you did it." It gestured to the unconscious bodies of some of the spiders. All of them had badly broken bones, burns, and cuts. "The viciousness. The brutality. It was… beautiful."

"I did what I had to do to stop them," Phoenix responded.

"Oh, but you did so much more than that. You broke them."

"I did what I had to do," Phoenix repeated, trying to hide that the figure's words were affecting him.

Ignoring his response, the figure continued. "You truly are your mother's son." This statement prompted Phoenix to lunge at the figure. The figure, however, anticipated this and drew its swords, blocking the attack. "So quick to attack. Does the truth really offend you that much?" it asked as their blades clashed. Phoenix responded by pushing the figure back and throwing down a smoke bomb to obscure its vision. He then switched his swords to their rifle mode and opened fire, using tactical mode to keep track of his opponent. The smoke didn't seem to cause the figure any difficulty though; it was able to block all of the shots he took at it with ease. Seeing this, Phoenix switched his guns to shotgun mode. The figure jumped up in the air to avoid the attack and sent several throwing knives down towards him. Phoenix managed to dodge the knives, but he was caught in the blast created by the lightning Dust explosives attached to them. The figure used a smoke bomb of its own to hide as the explosives on the knives went off. Phoenix wasn't able to see through it due to his mask's systems being damaged in the explosion.

When the smoke cleared the figure was nowhere to be found. It took this opportunity to continue speaking with Phoenix. Its voice seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. "You try to hide what you are by pretending to be some sort of hero, but a hero doesn't fight so viciously against common thugs and excuse their actions by saying that they 'did what they had to do'. A hero doesn't have the blood of huntsmen and huntresses on his hands."

"Th-that that wasn't my-" Phoenix tried to argue while reassuring himself, but he was cut off before he could finish.

"We both know that's a lie. Your 'friends' are trying to deny the truth of what you are: a monster. They can only reject the truth for so long though. When they can't deny it anymore, they'll turn on you. It's better for you to accept it now."

"SHUT UP!" Phoenix yelled in rage as he opened his lighter and sent a massive burst of fire in all directions. He was barely able to keep the Spiders from being caught in the flames. The blast created more than enough light to reveal where the figure was hiding, and it was caught in it. The figure's aura seemed to protect all of it except it's right arm. Part of its cloak and its right sleeve had been destroyed. The sleeve's destruction revealed something that Phoenix had been hoping he wouldn't have to encounter again: a Grimm arm. "What the hell are you?!" he demanded to know as he prepared to attack again.

"I am Abyss," the now named figure answered before dropping its sword and having its Grimm arm shoot out towards Phoenix in an attempt to stab him with its claws.

Phoenix dodged out of the way, and the arm struck a wall instead. He slammed the pommel blade of the sword in his right hand into the claw. The Grimm appendage's lack of aura meant that the blade went right through it, pinning it to the wall. He lunged forward to attack. He deflected Abyss' attempt to defend himself using his second hook sword and punched it in the face. Its mask crumbled under his fist, revealing the face of its wearer. Phoenix's face.

Phoenix woke up in a cold sweat. There was another reason that he liked to go out as the Flaming Shadow at night; if he didn't sleep, then he wouldn't have nightmares. These nightmares usually consisted of him being haunted by the ghosts of the hunters who he'd played a role in the death of or failing to save his friends, but he would sometimes find himself facing off against Abyss. This was not Phoenix's first encounter with Abyss. It also made appearances shortly after he first betrayed Cinder, when the police had first started hunting him, and when he had to do morally questionable things as the Flaming Shadow. His knowledge that Abyss was simply a figment of his imagination was almost always repressed during the nightmares where it appeared. It was a version of him that remained loyal to Cinder and took great pleasure in fulfilling her orders. It seemed like it was now loyal to Salem.

Deciding that there was no point in trying to go back to sleep, Phoenix instead began to get ready for the trip to Argus that they were leaving for that afternoon. Air traffic was currently on lockdown after the fight at Haven, and they didn't know when it would be allowed again. That meant that Jenkins couldn't fly them there. He would instead be flying Detective Grant back to Vale. The detective had reluctantly decided to put his hunt for Phoenix on hold, saying that this temporary truce was "a one time thing". He had also been persuaded to keep quiet about Lionheart being a traitor for now.

"Revealing Leo's betrayal could potentially lead to people distrusting the huntsman academies," Ozpin had explained when several members of the group had wanted to expose Lionheart. "The fact that Leo was a Faunus could also undo all of the good that the Faunus who intervened at the battle accomplished for their reputation." Ozpin's reasoning and the fact that Lionheart was already dead were enough to convince everyone, but none of them were happy about him being remembered as a hero.

Having finished getting ready, Phoenix decided to wait in the house's living room for the others to wake up. The first of them to do so was Ren, who often got up early to prepare breakfast for the others. "You're up early," he commented when he saw Phoenix on his scroll on the couch.

"Didn't want to risk oversleeping and having to rush," Phoenix lied before quickly changing the subject. "Want any help with breakfast?" Ren clearly saw through his attempt to change the subject but decided against pressing the issue, instead nodding in agreement.

This took WAY longer than it should have. Especially given the length of this chapter. The only excuse I can think of is spending a ton of time on college work. At one point I was so tired I confused this website with the one a teacher wanted us to submit our papers on and almost posted one of them as a new chapter. Whether or not that paper would be better than this is a matter up for debate.

I know that Abyss could have redirected the blast of fire that revealed his Grimm arm, and the systems in Phoenix's mask aren't usually damaged that easily. The reason for this is that the fight takes place in a dream. Dreams aren't logical. Is that a lazy excuse? Yes. Do I care? No.

I might change where Grant and Jenkins go based on what happens in later volumes.

Thanks for reading!